Top Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

Some say cheaters never win, and winners never cheat. However this has been disproved many times. So I have edited this saying to better fit reality. Cheaters get instant gratification, but fair players get their dignity and pride left untouched. Cheaters have taken morals and knocked them out so that they might never fight again. But some stay and act as a first aid kit to morals. Those people are the ones children should look up to, not the people who cheat.

When one says cheating, one of the first names that comes to mind is Barry Bonds. He has cheated since the 1990’s and only recently we have realized that he has been using steroids. Unfortunately this was after he had broken Hank Aaron’s home run record. He cheated, got instant gratification, and now is in deep trouble. Also he gets booed every time he gets up at bat. And yet he still seems to think people like him. Cheating is only enhancing your own self esteem and shouldn’t be done.

Another example is the person who killed Martin Luther King, Jr. Now you might be saying how was that cheating? And here is my answer. The assassin wanted to end the fight against segregation. So he killed King and got his instant gratification. But, the fair players who used peaceful protests got the feeling that they changed America. Look at our society today. All men are created equal under god just like it says in the Declaration of Independence.

Once I was cheated off of during a very important test at my school. I saw the other person at my table look at my paper, and mark down one of the answers to one of the harder problems. I told on this person and he got mad at me. I could’ve not done anything but I think that I helped that person by telling on him. I may have gotten him into trouble but in doing so I taught him a lesson and now he won’t ever cheat again.

It is very sad that the people who cheat are the role models of many young children in our society. People like Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire where heroes until they got caught cheating. The Patriots where all a coach could ask for but when they cheated against the Jets, it took a while for them to regain the trust of their fans. So how ever much you may think cheating is something you can do and not get into trouble, remember this, cheaters get instant gratification, but fair players get their dignity and pride left untouched.

Essay of the Week

When Alexxandra Shuman was in eighth grade, she was diagnosed with clinical depression. But it took more than medication for her to feel happy again. Ms. Shuman believes she has to look in the right places on her journey to finding happiness. Click here to read her essay.

What Students Believe

Throughout the school year, young people around the world write statements of belief as a classroom exercise. And thousands of those students have submitted their essays to our series. Click here to read a sampling of what young people believe.